Musicians

And, we're talking popular form, so there isn't much call for odd time signatures or radical chord changes.
So, if you listen to any 1,000 songs we'd probably hear 50 things extremely similar, here & there. If not way more.
Watch a Later with Jools Holland earlier today. Sting played a tune and there were some areas where I could hear Message In A Bottle. Not identical, but pretty clear. I doubt that was intentional.
You're dead on. This case was nonsense and so was the Harrison thing.